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Since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip last summer, that area has been used as a launch pad for mounting rocket attacks at Israel. Recently, the terrorists have been launching an average of forty a week and Israeli civilians in the area are fed up with having to run with their children to bomb shelters. The IDF has been ordered to step up its counter-terror campaign in what is turning into a ballistic intifada.

Speaking at the Hudson Institute in Washington, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon startled Israel by declaring publicly: 'The IDF has the military capability to destroy Iran's nuclear installations and setting back Tehran's quest to acquire the bomb for years'. The subject of the lecture was Halting Iran's Nuclear Program, Is there any Israeli Option? Reacting in Jerusalem, Israeli officials severely reprimanded the general for just about detailing how it could be done. However, speaking shortly before Yaalon's briefing, Acting PM Ehud Olmert also declared that 'Israel will not tolerate Iran's acquiring nuclear weapons'.

The Chief of IDF Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash has warned that Iran's nuclear weapons program is a threat to Europe no less than it is to Israel. In an interview with the Israeli daily Maariv, the intelligence official also said Israel should not rule out a military option, if the diplomatic approach fails to deter Tehran from continuing its clandestine program to produce nuclear weapons. As for the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas will back down rather than face a military confrontation with the terror groups that defy his authority. Gen. Zeevi-Farkash believes it is only a matter of time before the U.S. attacks Syria, if President Bashar Assad continues to allow the flow of guerrillas and explosives across the Syrian border into Iraq.

By the end of September a Russian Cosmos 3 missile will be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome 800 km north of Moscow, carrying two Iranian satellites into orbit. Although the satellites are claimed to be for meteorological and experimental purposes, experts believe that one of them will possess surveillance capabilities allowing it to observe American and Israeli military facilities throughout the Middle East. More importantly, experts believe that the Iranian space program serves as a cover for developing more advanced long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Uzi Rubin, a leading Israeli missile expert, warns that Iran and the Arab states now have an arsenal of about 1,000 ballistic missiles that can target Israel. Rubin, a founder of Israel's counter missile project known as 'Homah', was addressing an open session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Affairs & Defense Committee which discussed the missile threats now facing Israel. Yair Ramati the Arrow Project Director at Israel Aircraft Industries told the committee that the Arrow is capable of coping with a ballistic missile attack on Israel. But why has Israel yet to find an answer to the primitive Qassam rockets that Palestinians in Gaza Strip launch daily at Israeli settlements and communities inside Israel?

The election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, acting on the orders from Islamic leaders who call for Israel’s extermination, presents an even greater threat to the Jewish state. However, Menashe Amir, a leading Israeli expert on Iran, also says Tehran is threatening Europe & The U.S. as well as targets in the Middle East. The Iranians are determined to continue their drive to acquire nuclear weapons and will start resuming the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons, unless deterred by the European Union and the U.S. Moreover, although Iran already has developed a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to many parts of the region, it is also working on an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 10,000 kilometers (over 6,000 miles). Interviewed by David Essing, analyst Amir also foresees the new Iranian President stepping up aid to Hezbollah in south Lebanon and Hamas and particularly the Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian areas.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has come and gone - mission accomplished. Her job was to keep the ball rolling for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and 4 West Bank settlements starting in the second half of August. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian terrorists opened fire in the Gaza Strip killing one IDF soldier and wounded two others. It was only one of the daily violations of the current 'lull' in the Palestinian attacks. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to agree on closer Israeli- Palestinian cooperation for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and 4 West Bank settlements starting in mid-August.

British Ambassador Simon McDonald says Tehran is seeking to renew its uranium enrichment program but the E-3 (Britain, France & Germany) is talking a tough stand in negotiations with the Iranians. In an address to Israel's Council on Foreign relations in Jerusalem, the Ambassador warned that Iran's drive for nuclear weapons is the world's #1 problem. On the Israeli Palestinian, the British diplomat said things were looking up in light of Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and 4 settlements in Samaria. However he added that Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan must lead to further movement.

The 'Tahdia' cease-fire is now in danger of collapsing after Hamas terrorists launched their biggest assault since February. One Israeli civilian was wounded by shrapnel and some damage was caused. Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim has declared that Israel will not carry out the upcoming Gaza withdrawal under fire; the IDF would first have to cope with the Palestinian violence.

For the first time since the 'Tahdia' cease-fire went into force in February, an IDF pilot-less drone launched a missile at Palestinians who were lobbing mortar rockets at Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip.

The new Shabak Security Chief Yuval Diskin has unveiled his thinking on both the Arab and Jewish threats facing Israel today. In his first briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Diskin presented a detailed assessment against the backdrop of Israel's controversial plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and 4 northern Samaria settlements starting in August.

Yuval Diskin has taken over from Avi Dichter as Chief of the Shabak Security Service. At a ceremony in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Ariel Sharon formally appointed Diskin who served as a Deputy to Dichter in the Security Service.The change in command is only the first of two major changes in Israel's command structure that has succeeded in containing Palestinian suicide bombers.

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired an anti-tank missile at a bus of Israeli school children. Israeli officials have issued a stern warning to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to act before it is too late.A public opinion poll indicates the Israeli public is less enthusiastic about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's leadership and his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and 4 West Bank settlements now planned around mid-August. On the other hand, the poll by the Israeli daily Maariv, shows that Israelis are more upbeat about their personal security. David Essing reports on these issues and what Sharon says quietly about Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Sharansky resignation and Israel's security border with Egypt.

IDF Chief of Staff, General Moshe Yaalon warns of increased Palestinian terror attacks on the West Bank after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip that is slated for sometime this summer. On April 15th, IsraCast interviewed analyst Shalom Harari who revealed that Israeli security services forecast the Palestinians may launch Intifada#3 toward the end of the year.In the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian shooting attack wounded an IDF soldier and an Israeli civilian in the Philadelfi Axis security zone. Meanwhile in a surprise development, the Gaza evacuation may be postponed for three weeks because of a religious holiday.

According to reports published in the British journal "Financial Times" Ukraine has admitted that it exported 12 long range cruise missiles to Iran and six to China in 2001; the missiles were reportedly sold without their nuclear warheads. Ukraine's prosecutor-general told reporters that the Russian businessmen suspected of masterminding the sale, was arrested last July in Prague in response to a Ukrainian warrant. If the new missiles become operational, Iran will be in striking distance of all Middle East states as well as most countries in Europe.

This week, General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, the chief of IDF Intelligence, declared that Israel is paying a very heavy price in trying to advance the current peace process with the Palestinians. The Intelligence commander did not elaborate? Dr Michael Widlanski, a Middle East analyst at the Rothberg School at Hebrew University, has apparently discovered what the intelligence chief meant. Widlanski tells IsraCast that Israeli security forces were aware of the dangerous terrorist cell in Tul Kerem that carried out the night-club bombing in Tel Aviv, but decided not to smash the ring for fear of upsetting the current lull with the Palestinians.

These are some of the remarks of Knesset Member Eliezer 'Cheetah' Cohen, a retired IAF combat pilot who served with the Air Force Commander who has been named new IDF Chief Of Staff. Colonel Cohen says Halutz was not only a crack fighter pilot who flew the Phantom and F-16, he is known in the IAF as a brilliant planner.

In this revealing interview with David Essing, Cohen also talks about how the IAF has become second to none in the air.